VCU’s departure caps several months of discussion and study, and leaves CAA basketball demonstrably weaker, at least in the short term, as the conference loses one of its signature programs.

“By moving to the A-10, our ability to recruit and retain outstanding student-athletes will be significantly enhanced,” VCU president Michael Rao said Tuesday during a press conference at the Siegel Center.

“It’s part of a new vision for intercollegiate athletics at Virginia Commonwealth University. We want all of our student-athletes to enjoy a national-level championship experience. We are of course taking into consideration with any decision that we make, student success, and we’re looking at the long-term benefits to the university as well as to our student athletes and to our athletics programs.”

Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade called VCU “a perfect fit” for her conference, which also recently added Butler for the 2013-14 school year. The A-10 had lost Temple to the Big East and Charlotte, and its fledgling football program, to Conference USA.

VCU’s immediate departure is a function of school officials wanting, and the A-10 complying, to permit Rams’ teams and players to compete for conference championships and accompanying NCAA berths. That wouldn’t have been assured as lame-duck members of the CAA.

“While I was disappointed by the decision, we all recognize that we’re in an unprecedented period of change in college athletics,” CAA commissioner Tom Yeager said. “There’ve been any number of decisions that have been made for all different kinds of reasons. Time will tell which ones were good decisions or not.”

Yeager, en route from Hofstra’s introduction of new athletic director Jeff Hathaway, was noticeably peeved during conversations with reporters. He didn’t learn of VCU’s decision until Rao phoned him Tuesday morning. He lamented the lack of substantive dialogue between VCU officials and the CAA office during the process, despite the fact that only a few miles separate the Rams’ campus and the league office.

“In any event, each university has their own process they have to follow,” he said. “They come to a decision. I don’t have to agree with the decision or like it or not like it. But it is what it is and everybody’s moving forward.”

Moving forward for VCU means leaving behind money earned from its most recent NCAA tournament appearances – approximately $5 million, which would have been paid out over a six-year period. NCAA money remains with the conference to which schools belong at the time of their participation, and does not follow them if they change leagues.

In addition, VCU must pay a $250,000 exit fee to the CAA and a $700,000 entry fee to the Atlantic 10. Interim athletic director David Benedict also said that preliminary studies show that athletic travel costs will increase by approximately $150,000, a figure he called fairly insignificant, given VCU’s $21 million annual athletic budget.

VCU basketball coach Shaka Smart was on campus, but didn’t attend Tuesday’s press conference. He released a statement that read, in part: “We are extremely excited by the opportunity to join the Atlantic 10 Conference. It is a phenomenal league, made up of programs with both rich traditions and recent track records of success. We are very appreciative of the time we spent in the CAA, the experiences we had and the relationships we gained. We plan to maintain our key rivalries with CAA teams, now and in the future.”

Two primary factors that led to VCU’s jump to the Atlantic 10 were its basketball track record and revenue-sharing model. The A-10 has had 12 at-large berths in the NCAA tournament during the past six years, while the CAA has had just four since 1987.

Under the A-10’s revenue-sharing plan, schools keep 75 percent of what they earn from NCAA tournament appearances, with the other 25 percent going to the conference for overall distribution. The CAA’s plan spreads tournament appearance money more broadly.

Rao acknowledged that the Atlantic 10’s plan places more pressure on the basketball team to succeed, given the money that the school forfeits by departing the CAA.

“Absolutely and we wouldn’t want it any other way,” he said. “That’s exactly how we looked at this entire opportunity. We are succeeding, and we’re succeeding on a trajectory that led us to realize that we need to take the next step.

“I can’t tell you in the last 18 years of service that I have provided as a president, how many times you can easily get hooked by what seems like a very significant factor, in terms of what you leave behind and therefore leaving you with potential indecision. What you have to do is you have to say what do you think will likely happen in this program if we can keep the components of its success together if we move ahead. The answer was we have a whole lot more to gain by making a move and a whole lot to potentially lose if we stay in place.”

Speaking of which, the CAA also awaits a decision by Old Dominion on its future conference home. The Monarchs’ brain trust is considering a move to Conference USA, driven largely by its football program and a move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Yeager said that he has been kept up to speed by ODU athletic director Wood Selig, among others, on the Monarchs’ process.

Meanwhile, Yeager and the CAA membership will discuss such areas as scheduling and how to distribute the money left behind by VCU and Georgia State – the Panthers are lame-duck members for 2012-13, since they’re joining the Sun Belt Conference – at league meetings early next month.

Yeager insisted that the CAA remains viable, despite Tuesday’s hit and whatever Old Dominion decides. League officials, he said, are exploring the possibility of adding other schools, but won’t simply add members to reach a certain number.

“We’re going to be proactive,” he said, “in making the league what the members want it to be.”